By Steve Jones, USA TODAY
By Scotty Morris, AP
Famous fan?: Then-President Clinton geeks out over Captain Planet in 1995.
By Scotty Morris, AP
Famous fan?: Then-President Clinton geeks out over Captain Planet in 1995.
Captain Planet and the Planeteers was more than just a show about a superhero. It was a show that urged all its viewers to become heroes themselves ? and taught them how.
The animated program, created by executive producer Barbara Pyle and media mogul Ted Turner in 1990, planted seeds of environmentalism in a generation of kids with story lines dealing with such issues as pollution, deforestation, recycling, overpopulation and conservation.
The four-disc DVD set Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Season One (2011, Shout! Factory, not rated, $30) includes the first 26 episodes of the groundbreaking show. Naturally, it comes in packaging made with 100% recyclable paper.
The exhortation of the show's hero (voiced by David Coburn), "The power is yours," conveyed the idea that the lessons didn't end when the credits rolled; he expected his young followers to put them into action. At the end of each adventure, the Planeteers would issue a pair of Planeteer Alerts that would give tips on helping the environment. The theme song, with lyrics like, "We're the Planeteers/You can be one too/'cause saving our planet is the thing to do!" also helped reinforce the message.
Earth spirit Gaia (Whoopie Goldberg), awakened from her slumber by man's constant abuse of the planet, calls forth a team of teenagers to "fight for the good of the whole world."
The Planeteers are chosen from different parts of the planet by Gaia to battle ecological threats, and each is given a ring that lets them control a particular element. African Kwame (LeVar Burton) possessed the power of Earth, North American Wheeler (Joey Dedio) possessed fire, Soviet/Eastern European Linka (Kath Soucie) wind, Asian Gi (Janice Kawaye) water and South American Ma-Ti (Scott Menville), heart.
Whenever a problem would get out of hand, they'd combine powers to summon Captain Planet, who had all of their powers magnified.
There's no shortage of greedy, megalomaniacal polluters for them to deal with. The show's villains were voiced by a star-studded roster of actors. Hoggish Greedly (Ed Asner), Looten Plunder (James Coburn), MAL (David Rappaport), Verminous Skumm (Jeff Goldblum), Dr. Blight (Meg Ryan), Sly Sludge (Martin Sheen), Zarn (Sting) and Duke Nukem (Dean Stockwell) were among the most malevolent environmental criminals.
His ultimate nemesis, though, was the evil Captain Pollution, who was created after Dr. Blight duplicated the Planeteers' stolen rings. Disaster was always just around the corner in the 113 episodes produced over the cartoon's nearly six-year run.
The reach of Captain Planet, which runs in syndication, went way beyond the TV screen. There were toys, comic books, and video games. In 1992, it spawned a non-profit Captain Planet Foundation (Ted Turner's five children are part of the board of directors) that continues to support environmental education and programs for kids around the world. The goal is still to "take pollution down to zero."
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